The Lonely God Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDEFFGG HHIIJJKKLLMM NNOOPPQQRSTMUUVVMMTT WWM XXOOYYMMPPWW ZZA2A2B2B2A2A2C2C2D2 D2E2E2A2A2F2F2LG2BBU U GGHHE2E2C2C2GGTT MMH2H2I2I2J2J2J2TMM K2K2J2J2YYCCYYL2D TTJ2J2M2M2YYMMJ2J2DL 2J2J2J2J2J2J2J2J2LG2 E2E2QQMMJ2J2HHNN QQJ2J2THYYJ2J2TT HHJ2J2HHN2N2MMTT O2J2TTJ2J2J2J2J2J2TJ 2| So Eden was deserted and at eve | A |
| Into the quiet place God came to grieve | A |
| His face was sad His hands hung slackly down | B |
| Along his robe too sorrowful to frown | B |
| He paced along the grassy paths and through | C |
| The silent trees and where the flowers grew | C |
| Tended by Adam All the birds had gone | D |
| Out to the world and singing was not one | E |
| To cheer the lonely God out of His grief | F |
| The silence broken only when a leaf | F |
| Tapt lightly on a leaf or when the wind | G |
| Slow handed swayed the bushes to its mind | G |
| - | |
| And so along the base of a round hill | H |
| Rolling in fern He bent His way until | H |
| He neared the little hut which Adam made | I |
| And saw its dusky rooftree overlaid | I |
| With greenest leaves Here Adam and his spouse | J |
| Were wont to nestle in their little house | J |
| Snug at the dew time here He standing sad | K |
| Sighed with the wind nor any pleasure had | K |
| In heavenly knowledge for His darlings twain | L |
| Had gone from Him to learn the feel of pain | L |
| And what was meant by sorrow and despair | M |
| Drear knowledge for a Father to prepare | M |
| - | |
| There he looked sadly on the little place | N |
| A beehive round it was without a trace | N |
| Of occupant or owner standing dim | O |
| Among the gloomy trees it seemed to Him | O |
| A final desolation the last word | P |
| Wherewith the lips of silence had been stirred | P |
| Chaste and remote so tiny and so shy | Q |
| So new withal so lost to any eye | Q |
| So pac't of memories all innocent | R |
| Of days and nights that in it had been spent | S |
| In blithe communion Adam Eve and He | T |
| Afar from Heaven and its gaudery | M |
| And now no more He still must be the God | U |
| But not the friend a Father with a rod | U |
| Whose voice was fear whose countenance a threat | V |
| Whose coming terror and whose going wet | V |
| With penitential tears not evermore | M |
| Would they run forth to meet Him as before | M |
| With careless laughter striving each to be | T |
| First to His hand and dancing in their glee | T |
| To see Him coming they would hide instead | W |
| At His approach or stand and hang the head | W |
| Speaking in whispers and would learn to pray | M |
| Instead of asking 'Father if we may ' | - |
| - | |
| Never again to Eden would He haste | X |
| At cool of evening when the sun had paced | X |
| Back from the tree tops slanting from the rim | O |
| Of a low cloud what time the twilight dim | O |
| Knit tree to tree in shadow gathering slow | Y |
| Till all had met and vanished in the flow | Y |
| Of dusky silence and a brooding star | M |
| Stared at the growing darkness from afar | M |
| While haply now and then some nested bird | P |
| Would lift upon the air a sleepy word | P |
| Most musical or swing its airy bed | W |
| To the high moon that drifted overhead | W |
| - | |
| 'Twas good to quit at evening His great throne | Z |
| To lay His crown aside and all alone | Z |
| Down through the quiet air to stoop and glide | A2 |
| Unkenned by angels silently to hide | A2 |
| In the green fields by dappled shades where brooks | B2 |
| Through leafy solitudes and quiet nooks | B2 |
| Flowed far from heavenly majesty and pride | A2 |
| From light astounding and the wheeling tide | A2 |
| Of roaring stars Thus does it ever seem | C2 |
| Good to the best to stay aside and dream | C2 |
| In narrow places where the hand can feel | D2 |
| Something beside and know that it is real | D2 |
| His angels silly creatures who could sing | E2 |
| And sing again and delicately fling | E2 |
| The smoky censer bow and stand aside | A2 |
| All mute in adoration thronging wide | A2 |
| Till nowhere could He look but soon He saw | F2 |
| An angel bending humbly to the law | F2 |
| Mechanic knowing nothing more of pain | L |
| Than when they were forbid to sing again | G2 |
| Or swing anew the censer or bow down | B |
| In humble adoration of His frown | B |
| This was the thought in Eden as He trod | U |
| It is a lonely thing to be a God | U |
| - | |
| So long afar through Time He bent His mind | G |
| For the beginning which He could not find | G |
| Through endless centuries and backwards still | H |
| Endless forever till His 'stonied will | H |
| Halted in circles dizzied in the swing | E2 |
| Of mazy nothingness His mind could bring | E2 |
| Not to subjection grip or hold the theme | C2 |
| Whose wide horizon melted like a dream | C2 |
| To thinnest edges Infinite behind | G |
| The piling centuries were trodden blind | G |
| In gulfs chaotic so He could not see | T |
| When He was not who always had To Be | T |
| - | |
| Not even godly fortitude can stare | M |
| Into Eternity nor easy bear | M |
| The insolent vacuity of Time | H2 |
| It is too much the mind can never climb | H2 |
| Up to its meaning for without an end | I2 |
| Without beginning plan or scope or trend | I2 |
| To point a path there nothing is to hold | J2 |
| And steady surmise so the mind is rolled | J2 |
| And swayed and drowned in dull Immensity | J2 |
| Eternity outfaces even Me | T |
| With its indifference and the fruitless year | M |
| Would swing as fruitless were I never there | M |
| - | |
| And so for ever day and night the same | K2 |
| Years flying swiftly nowhere like a game | K2 |
| Played random by a madman without end | J2 |
| Or any reasoned object but to spend | J2 |
| What is unspendable Eternal Woe | Y |
| O Weariness of Time that fast or slow | Y |
| Goes never further never has in view | C |
| An ending to the thing it seeks to do | C |
| And so does nothing merely ebb and flow | Y |
| From nowhere into nowhere touching so | Y |
| The shores of many stars and passing on | L2 |
| Careless of what may come or what has gone | D |
| - | |
| O solitude unspeakable to be | T |
| For ever with oneself never see | T |
| An equal face or feel an equal hand | J2 |
| To sit in state and issue reprimand | J2 |
| Admonishment or glory and to smile | M2 |
| Disdaining what has happen d the while | M2 |
| O to be breast to breast against a foe | Y |
| Against a friend to strive and not to know | Y |
| The laboured outcome love nor be aware | M |
| How much the other loved and greatly care | M |
| With passion for that happy love or hate | J2 |
| Nor know what joy or dole was hid in fate | J2 |
| For I have ranged the spacy width and gone | D |
| Swift north and south striving to look upon | L2 |
| An ending somewhere Many days I sped | J2 |
| Hard to the west a thousand years I fled | J2 |
| Eastwards in fury but I could not find | J2 |
| The fringes of the Infinite Behind | J2 |
| And yet behind and ever at the end | J2 |
| Came new beginnings paths that did not wend | J2 |
| To anywhere were there and ever vast | J2 |
| And vaster spaces opened till at last | J2 |
| Dizzied with distance thrilling to a pain | L |
| Unnameable I turned to Heaven again | G2 |
| And there My angels were prepared to fling | E2 |
| The cloudy incense there prepared to sing | E2 |
| My praise and glory O in fury I | Q |
| Then roared them senseless then threw down the sky | Q |
| And stamped upon it buffeted a star | M |
| With my great fist and flung the sun afar | M |
| Shouted My anger till the mighty sound | J2 |
| Rung to the width frighting the furthest bound | J2 |
| And scope of hearing tumult vaster still | H |
| Throning the echo dinned My ears until | H |
| I fled in silence seeking out a place | N |
| To hide Me from the very thought of Space | N |
| - | |
| And so He thought in Mine own Image I | Q |
| Have made a man remote from Heaven high | Q |
| And all its humble angels I have poured | J2 |
| My essence in his nostrils I have cored | J2 |
| His heart with My own spirit part of Me | T |
| His mind with laboured growth unceasingly | H |
| Must strive to equal Mine must ever grow | Y |
| By virtue of My essence till he know | Y |
| Both good and evil through the solemn test | J2 |
| Of sin and retribution till with zest | J2 |
| He feels his godhead soars to challenge Me | T |
| In Mine own Heaven for supremacy | T |
| - | |
| Through savage beasts and still more savage clay | H |
| Invincible I bid him fight a way | H |
| To greater battles crawling through defeat | J2 |
| Into defeat again ordained to meet | J2 |
| Disaster in disaster prone to fall | H |
| I prick him with My memory to call | H |
| Defiance at his victor and arise | N2 |
| With anguished fury to his greater size | N2 |
| Through tribulation terror and despair | M |
| Astounded he must fight to higher air | M |
| Climb battle into battle till he be | T |
| Confronted with a flaming sword and Me | T |
| - | |
| So growing age by age to greater strength | O2 |
| To greater beauty skill and deep intent | J2 |
| With wisdom wrung from pain with energy | T |
| Nourished in sin and sorrow he will be | T |
| Strong pure and proud an enemy to meet | J2 |
| Tremendous on a battle field or sweet | J2 |
| To walk by as friend with candid mind | J2 |
| Dear enemy or friend so hard to find | J2 |
| I yet shall find you yet shall put My breast | J2 |
| In enmity or love against your breast | J2 |
| Shall smite or clasp with equal ecstasy | T |
| The enemy or friend who grows to | J2 |
James Stephens
(1)
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